Disclaimer: I wish I own the characters of Prince of Tennis.

The morning classes went by uneventful. As soon as the bell rang for lunch break, several students, boys and girls, came flocking at Sae's table. They came asking questions and the girl answered each of them honestly. Ryoma, who is seated next to Sae, stood up to get something to eat.

"Sae, where do you live?" Ryoma froze when he heard someone asked a certain question which might be a bit troublesome if the answer is known by everyone.

"I live in - eh?" her words were cut off when someone grabbed her wrist. When Sae looked up, Ryoma was looking at her with serious expression.

"Ryoma?"

"Come with me." The girl had no time to reply as Ryoma dragged her outside their classroom.

Ryoma stop as they arrived at the rooftop. Sae rubbed the wrist Ryoma pulled a moment ago. His grip was a little hard that her wrist is now red, however, Ryoma didn't seem to notice.

"Why do you have to bring me here all of a sudden?" Sae asked.

"We have to clear some things," Ryoma said, his back still facing her. The girl gave him a questioning look. Ryoma looked around to make sure that they are alone before he spoke. "First, you must not tell anyone that we live in same house." Ryoma paused as if to check if the girl understood what he said.

"I get what you mean. It might cause a misunderstanding if someone else knows that we are living under the same roof to think we're not even related."

"Second, if someone asked if we are related, tell them that we are distant relatives."

"But why? We are already keeping the information about me living in your house a secret. Why do we need to lie about us being not related at all?"

"For convenience. We can use it as an excuse why you are with me this morning. Also, knowing Mom, she will not let you go to school alone so we might be seen together every morning."

"Okay, I get it," Sae nodded.

"Last, don't tell anyone in school about my father."

"Your father? You mean Uncle Nanjiroh?"

"Who else would it be?"

"Oh, sorry. But why? From what I heard, he is famous for-" Sae paused. Different thoughts came to her mind as she realize what she was about to say. Ryoma may have a deep reason for this. "I didn't mean to pry. Okay, I'll keep that a secret too." Sae raised her right hand as a sign of pledge.

Ryoma did not reply. He just walked passed her and left her alone on the rooftop. Sae sighed at his reaction. She left the rooftop and walked back to their classroom.

Sae was greeted by curious gazes on her return. Even before she can sit on her chair, questions were already thrown to her.

"What is you relationship with Echizen?" a classmate asked getting the attention of everyone in the room. It's rare to see the cool and compose Echizen would act as he did earlier.

"Well, um. Echizen and I are distant relatives," she answered as instructed by Ryoma, "he just need to ask me something earlier."

Surprise faces came to Sae's view but no further question about the event earlier was asked.

The afternoon came fast. Sae found Ryoma asleep for the whole period of their English class but their teacher did not seem to mind.

After the class ended, Sae cannot leave the school yet for she has to wait for Ryoma. Rinko strictly forbid her to go home alone especially since this is her first day in Seigaku. However, when she turned to Ryoma's seat, he was already gone to their tennis practice.

"I guess I have to go find him." Sae thought to herself.

Sae wandered around the school figuring the way to the tennis court. As she passed by the back of a building, she heard voices which seemed to have a not so pleasant conversation.

"You belong in the tennis club right? Why can't you even return a ball using your racket?" a second year smirked as he held a baseball bat in one hand and a tennis ball on the other.

"Even if you say it, the ball came very fast. How are we supposed to return it to you!?" a boy with a brown hair answered back as he help his friend who fell to the ground.

"Horio, stop. We can't fight someone like them," the boy on the ground said while stopping Horio from using the racket in his hand.

"Why don't you listen to your friend and just give us what we ask so we can let you go now," the other upperclassman snickered.

"B-but, we don't have that kind of money." a semi-bald boy stuttered.

"Well then, I guess you can afford to be our baseball target then," the second year said as his companion threw the tennis ball in the air and positioned his bat to hit it. Horio closed his eyes tightly as if waiting for the ball to come towards him but after a moment, he heard a sound of a ball bouncing to a different direction.

"What the heck!?" the upperclassman exclaimed.

"What happened?" Horio asked.

"A tennis ball was hit by another tennis ball and was deflected to the other side."

Horio saw two tennis balls on the ground rolling on opposite directions. When they turn to see where the other ball came from, they found their new classmate with a racket on her hand while dribbling a ball on the other hand.

"What do you think you're doing!?" the second year yelled but the girl looked at him with piercing eyes.

"How dare you use tennis to pick on the weak? That's very unforgivable."

"Hey, cutie. We don't want to hurt you, okay?" said the other second year after seeing Sae holding a racket. He slowly walked closer as he continued, "why don't you just put down that racket then we can have a sweet time together. What do you sa-" suddenly, a tennis ball came passed his face. It missed him by merely a centimeter.

"Move closer and I will make sure this next ball will hit your face hard."

The second year clenched his fist. The girl is making him really angry. He signaled his friend to target the girl on his next turn. As his friend did, the tennis ball was hit back by the girl using the racket on her hand. However, the ball spin on the ground next to the second year's feet before it bounced towards the boy's head hitting only the stray strands of his hair.

"It's the twist serve!"

"How could she do that? The direction and the velocity of the ball is not favorable for such technique," the boy with the semi-bald hair commented.

"Oh, you've seen the twist serve before?" the girl asked with curiosity in her eyes.

"You! How dare y-"

"I think that would be enough," a voice came from behind him. He felt a chilly aura as the voice continued to speak, "if you ever lay a finger on these kids again, I don't think I can leave you unharmed." The second year turned and saw a scary cerulean eyes looking directly at him. "F-Fuji-sempai!?" He knew the reputation of Fuji as a sadist. He is aware that his life would be a living hell if he gets on his bad side.

"W-we understand. We-we'll not do it again. We swear." the two run as if their lives are at stake.

"Are you guys alright?" Momo asked.

"Fuji-sempai! Momo-sempai!" the three ran towards their sempai-tachi.

Sae watch the scene silently.

"Eh? You're Echizen's girlfriend!" Momo realized what he said, "I-I mean Echizen's relative. We have not been introduced properly. I'm Takeshi Momoshiro. You can call me Momo." Momo grabbed her hand and shake it vigourously.

"Saa, Momo, you're hurting her."

"Ah, sorry," Momo let go of her hand and scratch his head.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Shusuke Fuji."

"Um, my name is Saeri Ichinomiya. Please call me Sae," the girl bowed her head slightly.

"You don't need to be so formal," Momo patted her back.

"Is that so?" Sae smiled. Momo flushed after seeing her smiling face. Unconsciously, Fuji opened his eyes. "Oh, I almost forgot, I need to go to the tennis court. Which direction will I go?"

"We are headed there too. Why not go with us then?"

Fuji and Momo entered the court as soon as they arrived. Sae scanned through the area as she looked for Ryoma. She found him already inside the court together with the other members. She didn't hear what their captain instructed but after the formation, each court was occupied by a pair of regulars facing each other.

"Oh look, Echizen will be facing Kikumaru-sempai." Tomoka exclaimed while she pointed at the court.

Sae watched as the game went on. She was amused how Kikumaru was able to take shots with all his acrobatic stunts. As she watched him play, she saw something odd.

"Kikimaru-sempai... you can easily tell where his next shot will go," she murmured to herself.

"Really?" Sae was startled by the voice behind her. She didn't realize that a guy with eyeglasses stood behind her. "Can you elaborate it further?" His eyeglass shone. Sae saw him earlier inside the court. He seemed to be collecting data as the game goes on.

"Oh, um, see there. His next shot will go to the right of his opponent." Sae turned her eyes back to the game as she pointed it to the guy with glasses. Kikumaru's shot indeed went to the direction she said. "His next shot will go to the left," the next ball did go to the left.

"How did you know?"

"Well, um, his habit?"

"Game, set and match, Echizen!" shouted Momo who acted as the referee. The game ended with the game of 6-3 in favor of Echizen.

"Inui, we're up," a hand held Inui's shoulder. It was Fuji with his usual smile. Fuji glanced at Sae before he followed Inui inside the court. He remembered the shot he saw earlier. It looked like a twist serve but the way she held the racket was different. In a normal scenario, the ball should have been too low for a twist serve but she was able to pull it off. "She might be an interesting opponent." Fuji thought to himself.

"Inui-sempai's playing too? But I thought, he's no longer a regular." Tomoka blurted out.

Sae watched each player on the courts. The Kaidoh-Kawamura game just finished as the Inui-Fuji game started. They might not be playing as serious as a real game but she was able to analyze the strengths and weaknesses each has. Even the techniques they used have a lot of potential to improve if given proper training and emphasis on certain parameters.

Coach Sumire saw a new girl on the side of the court watching intently on the game. She knew she had seen her face before but she can't quite figure out where or when it was.

That's all... for now

Comments, questions or suggestions would be nice.

Just tell me what you guys think. Thanks.

(=^.^=)